Deal with lean fish-Poached Fish

Oliver oil poached Halibut with pesto

(prosciutto wrapped Turkish fig with stuffed goat cheese)

Milk poached cod, scallion egg rolls with romesco sauce

Poach is a very delicate way to cook fish, and you can taste the original flavor of fish that comes from the ocean, also prevent from ovecooked( if you are really doing poach, but not boiling)

For lean fish, it's good to use oliver oil , butter poach, to make it more moisture and juicy. The point is to season the liquid well, otherwise your fish will be very bland.

Add some herb into your poach liquid, like thyme, bay leaves, peppercorn , season with salt, poach temperature( low heat for my stovetop), 5mins

Egg roll:

the secrete to make tender egg is to add some fat( like heavy or light cream) and some water( I used chicken stock), milk has too much protein. Some chef even discard egg white to reduce the protein.

This is a Japanese style egg roll, but I saw some recipe about romesco with omelette, so I guessed they would work too, and this is so true!

Romesco style red pepper coulis

One of my favorite sauce, needs some work. Roasted pepper, remove skin, boiling pepper and garlic and some shallot in chicken stock, smoke paprika, cayenne pepper , reduce the liquid,  then blend it together with some nuts( usually use bleached  almond and hazelnut, but I am so smart to use macadamia ~~. not sure if they will taste the same) also this is not very authentic remesco, usually it also has tomato. stale bread, vinegar. I would like to try this more authentic one next time:

 http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/romesco_sauce.aspx

the last thing I want to say is ...

it's so expensive to experiment on fish~~

Worship Oleana(2)

Goat cheese rice cake ( with golden raisin and pine nuts), champagne grape red wine sauce , champagne grape and baby arugula 

Seared scallop with warm Fig, Fig jam, crispy prosciutto, tomato beurre blanc

The first one was a big success, I am very proud of myself ! In Oleana, it was a grape leaves stuffed with goat cheese rice with champagne grape sauce and champagne grape. I made it over by  adding golden raisin and pine nuts, skipping grape leaves but pan fried it to give it a crispy outside, creamy inside.

As for the sauce, I boiled and reduced red wine with butter champagne grape and shallots, chicken stock, a little bit balsamic vinegar and pomegranate concentration , then blend it and filter to get the silky sauce.

The second one, it was a warm Fig , seared scallop with fig pistachio jam, underneath was tomato kisir. and pistachio cream 

It was too sweet for me, so I added prosciutto , which goes well with fig. I made fig, walnut jam by reducing red wine with dried fig, walnut, and blend to make a jam.

Didn't make pistachio cream , instead make berrue blanc as the fatty/cream part

It was OK, don't think the combination is a keeper.

ps: glad I can get some cooking inspiration back. I was frustrated by dining out more but little progress in cooking, now it seems to start getting paid back!  I appreciate....

Le Cordon Bleu open house and french cooking demo

I went to the open house in Le Cordon Bleu Boston , I got to visit the classrooms----actually kitchens, and had an French cooking demonstration. I know it's a place that I am supposed to be in, I am always most happy cooking in the kitchen, there were hundreds of nice gears and lots of fresh ingredients, I wouldn't notice how time passed if I was cooking or experimenting there. But I can't make myself move on to become a student here  and change my whole life. At least now, it's not a right time for me. Maybe I just can 'love cooking with abandon', but I think I can 'cook with abandon', and I am not afraid to claim that.

Those are the 'classrooms'

This is the restaurant 'Technique(tek-neek)' for students, they will do cooking, serving and all the other kinds things in real world restaurants there. I got to see the menu, which is very tempting French cuisine , but with a good deal

This is the kit box that every student will get one on their first day. Then they only need to carry this whenever they go to school, no laptop please!

After the tour, there was a French cooking demo, Chef demostarted salmon two ways for us: poached and sauté with vegetable(fennel, zucchini , carrot, tomato ragu and sweet corn puree)

The two big screens are showing what is going on on the cooking table, this is also how it works when they teach

1. Make sweet corn puree

chef said, using a larger flat container, so the sweet corn will only be in the container but not everywhere

Also, using the back of the knife to do it another time, to get the sweet pulps. Chef also revealed a secrete about food, the real flavor is always in an uneatable parts, which is the best for making stock

So we saved the sticks for corn stock( some onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves)

Next step is to saute the sweet corns. Heat pan with butter,  instead of throw sweet corns into the pan directly, Chef used a technique here, removed the pan from the stovetop, then added the sweet corns , it will prevent the corns from being browned. Then added corn stock, let it cook for 10 mins until fully cooked, used a blender to make puree

this is the sweet corns in corn stock

2. Making ragout, this is French ragout (main-dish stew), different from Italian tomato sauce ragu. Heat pan and butter, put all the ingredients into the pan, add fish stock and let it simmer. Chef pre-boiled the carrot, because it usually takes long for carrots to be cooked, and if you want to get fully cooked carrots by saute, it will lose the bright color, so the best way is to pre-boil them

When ragout was simmering, Chef showed us how to dice tomato, skinless, seedless ones. It involves cutting a cross on the top of the tomato, boiling it for 5 seconds, then remove the skin.

For me, it's a kind of waste, oh well, this is how fine dining works. 

At the end, Chef added the parsley butter, he made a day ahead, so the ragout turns into vivid green

3. Prepare salmon. 

For poached salmon. we need to remove the skin, Chef said: "cut into the skin 1 inch, pinch it, flip, take the skin off'.........but I really had a hard time doing this. > <'

Season the fillets and let them rest a few minutes, pat VERY VERY DRY. Don't put the salmon in to the pan until the pan is VERY VERY HOT(  my problem is, my nonstick griddle can never be very hot :(( , time to get new gears!)

seasoning salmon, always in a higher position to season more evenly

poached salmon in fish stock(lower left), saute salmon( upper, right)

this is something new: after skin side is done, flip it, pour out the oil from the pan, then add some butter into it

splash butter onto salmon

4. Plating: add ragout, add corn puree in the center, put the fillet on

Really nice , real, really ...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now my turn:

Making parsley butter: picked the leaves and boil them about 5 seconds, immediately put them into ice water. using a blender to make puree, whipped into softened butter.

For some reason I didn't get very fine parsley puree, I don't know if I should blame my awkward blender or my skills. 

I ended up with something like this, and this basically predicts the failure of my ragout

get corns and make stock

refining the puree

diced tomato

you can tell from the pattern on the skin, I used griddle pan, also I think I need a cast iron pan to get that perfect crust. 

It's easy to tell the differences between mine and the Chef's . A long way to go, immature chef Gaogao, well, I will be back to make them again1!

Recipe-Miso Glalzed Salmon, Miso peanut butter eggplant, mint green tea rice

I don't write recipe in my blog, because it's difficult to say, each time before I try some new stuffs, I will have to look up several similar recipes to get the inspiration and figure out how I am going to cook it, and for the measurements, I usually just remember the proportion,   so it will be more flexible for me to cook it in the future  with different sizes, and and taste the sauce as I prepare it and adjust the proportion accordingly and gradually.

But today, I am going to write a recipe  a very thorough recipe and method for this dish, because it is a requirement.

Miso Glalzed Salmon, Miso peanut butter eggplant, mint green tea rice

Miso Glalzed Salmon*:

(sweet part:)

1TBS Brown sugar

1TBS Mirin**

(salty part:)

1TBS Miso

1TBS Ponzu( =1TBS low salt soysauce +1 TBS orange juice)***

1/2" fresh ginger granted**** including all the ginger juice

1TBS sesame oil

*basically, start from sweet part and salty part as 1:1, adjust it accordingly 

**Mirin is sweet, most of the ingredient is corn syrup, but it rends the glaze and special flavor

***Ponzu is a Japanese soysauce with some orange flavor,  the substitution should work, but I add orange juice concentration anyway even with Ponzu, if you don't buy orange juice regularly, just squeeze the fresh orange

**** this is very important , can't be substituted with ginger powder 

Method

1.Take the salmon out of refrige and let it warm up to room temperature 

2. make the marinade sauce

3. Marinade the salmon, I did it in this way, put the salmon into marinade sauce and skin side up, let the weight of itself to absorb the sauce, and for the skin side, seasoning with a little bit salt ans pepper

4. for all seafood, the marinade time can't be longer than 30mins

5.usually you can just go to step 6 to broil it, but I prefer to pan sear it to create a crispy skin

when pan is very hot, add oil( hot pot, cold oil), put salmon in the pan, skin side down, sear it, don't move it, see when 1/3-1/2 meat is cooked, use a big flat spatula to move it on to a rack( use the toast oven rack if you  don't have a big one)

6. set oven on broil( this should be done before step 5), put the rack with salmon in to the oven  4-6inched from the top of the oven ( in my oven it is the second level from the top), broil it( time depends on the thickness of your salmon)

10-12min if skip step 5

6-7 min if you have done the step 5

but you have to check , when the glaze is formed , it indicates your salmon is ready, 

7. let the salmon sit 5mins or so before serve

Miso peanut butter Eggplant:

Usually miso eggplant is just miso sauce without peanut butter, but I like peanut butter so and have read a recipe called peanut butter eggplant, after made two versions with and without peanut, I think peanut is a great complement here

(Miso: Rice vinegar: sweet stuffs=2:1:0.7)

2TBS Miso

1TBS rice vinegar

1tsp brown sugar+1tsp mirin( adjust accordingly)

2-3TBS sesame oil, more for brush

1. Cut the eggplant either lengthwise or into round slice( it means you have to brush the sauce to both sides)

2.Marinade the eggplant at least 15mins ahead

3.same oven setting as in salmon above, brush the skin of eggplant with sesame oil

4. Broil it for about 10min, check in the half brush with sesame oil to the edge and surface, (if your eggplant is round sliced, turn them over in the half)

5. when the brown glaze is formed, it's done

6.when hot,sprinkle with green onion

Mint green tea rice

It can use all kinds of tea, either basic green tea or  jasmine tea, I used mint tea here to pair the miso sauce.

the proportion I used is:

3 tea bags( 3tsp loose tea)

1cup rice

1tsp olive oil

salt if you want to season it

cook it in the rice cooker in the normal way you cook rice

I hope the above is a reader-friendly recipe and I have them very clear

Attach another mobile picture from the dinner, surprised it turns out that thorndike kitchen looks romantic!

Sundried-tomato pesto, parmesan, mozzarella, marinade tomato, crispy prosciutto, fresh basil pizza

Sundried -tomato pesto: sundried tomato, basil, pine nut, roasted garlic, olive oil, make it in a pesto way

marinade tomato: red wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, thyme, sugar, marinade at least 1hr

  

Let's sing in the rain

Seared Bluefish with sweet corn tomatillo sauce,

arugula,basil with lemon vinaigrette in paprika asiago  frico basket

tomato confit 

sweet corn tomatillo sauce: using sweet corn, tomatillo , jalapeño, onion,garlic, cream, asiago cheese, making corn soup, using blender to make puree, drain the puree

paprika asiago frico basket: mix paprika, black pepper with shredded asiago cheese, make a thin round layer on parchment paper, 375F, 5-7min( it is bulbing ), fit the soft asiago round into muffin pan, let it cool to form a basket

tomato confit: mix cherry tomato with thyme, garlic, salt pepper, oliver oil, bake 350F about 30-40 mins, let it cool, put them in a jar, fill in oliver oil

One day, submarine was crossing the rainbow bridge, 

then she found out, the world over the rainbow is nothing special

if it rains here, so is the other side...

but she thinks she can sing , at least

this is the Ricola wrapper I collected,now it's difficult to close the box, 

time to make something out of them...

Waiting for a superman(by Iron and Wine)

Saffron Cod soup

(parsnip,carrot, tarragon, saffron,celery, tomato paste)

It becomes more and more frustrating, when will my Savior come?

Waiting for my superman, not has to be very powerful, just right will be fine

Submarine's sadness--Almond crusted tilapia with red and green sauce

Boby Flay made a soup , it was like filled in the plate with half tomato soup and half avocado soup in the avocado battle', Guy Fieri made a pumpkin seeds crusted handcock with cream cilantro sauce.

And I, made this --Almond crusted tilapia with roasted pepper coulius sauce and avocado cilantro tomatillo sauce.( I guess tomato sauce will  be better to go with avocado sauce), but it was just some leftover sauce.

Avocado cilantro tomatillo sauce:

tomatillo , garlic, scallion, cilantro, Serrano  chiles, chicken stock--cooked part

avocado--raw

sour cream

use blender to make  a puree--------I think i made it way too thick

Almond crusted tilapia

first layer: flour, salt, white pepper, coriander

second layer: washed egg

last layer: almond flake

pan fried, medium heat

Recently, I wanted to  draw something under the sea, then  I thought of Ponyo, Yes, submarine can meet ponyo! But after I was done with that, I realized Ponyo would become a real girl and go wherever she wanted, but submarine could go nowhere but staying in the water forever, she could never really celebrate friend's birthday, never really pass a tea , never really get a hug...

isn't it  sad? :(

The happiness of receiving a post card--coconut banana shrimp ball

I think this is the first time I got a post card since I got to the States, although it is for the resident proof and I asked him to send it to me, but still it looks like a super surprise for an ordinary day,  I thought it was lost, since it had been almost two weeks, and it turned out to be  a surprise.

I hope my friends that have got my postcards were as happy as I am now, since they were actually really unexpected. Everytime, when I sent out a post card, I would be nervous, would it arrive? how long would it take ? would you like it? All kinds of guessing  were haunting around until I got a 'thank you' letter, then I got relieved. But still, I couldn't get to know how it was when you found it in a bunch of billing mails, commercial mails,  did you smile? did you  imagine how I was when I wrote down those words? did your day get a little bit brightened? ....well, right now, I know!

Thank YOU, XGs!

(1st time)

(2nd time)

This shrimp ball also has a little connection with travelling. It was I took connection in San Francisco when I flew back from Seattle. I had a dim sum stuff, called banana shrimp roll, it sounded interesting and was very delicious, I didn't know shrimp and banana had this kind of friendship : D

Shrimp ball with banana

shrimp, cilatrol or scallion, oyster sauce, white pepper, starch, egg white, coconut milk, cubed banana

Marmalade dip: orange marmalade, dijion marstard,

I made it twice, the first time, there was too much panko, which made it not taste very coconut, and the banana didn't get cooked enough to be soft

the second time, I reduced the amount of shrimp, the shrimp layer was thinner, then the banana got cooked well also added coconut milk into the shrimp, and it made it very moisture.